Remember back when Nokia jumped to Windows Phone 7, abandoning all other platforms and future directions? Remember Elop's infamous 'burning platform' memo was coveniently 'leaked' to the web? Remember how Elop claimed Windows Phone 7 was the only way forward, since nothing else inside the company would be ready for prime time soon enough? Remember how I thought this was a very good and sane decision? Well, the first reviews of what will be the only MeeGo handset from Nokia (the N9) are in, and well... To whoever decided to go WP7 and ditch MeeGo: I don't like you. To myself: I'm an idiot for arguing this was a good idea.

What Nokia failed to realize is that not only does the quality of their own Software matter, but the existence of a ecosystem around this OS. With Nokia abandoning Maemo for Meego, and now releasing Meego although it is already dead and dropped for Tizen, NO ONE will ever write apps for this piece of technology, because NO ONE wants to rewrite own apps every year or two, because some marketing bosses seem to know a better platform.

If Nokia were simply to provide Alien Dalvik, then the N9 with Meego could run all of Android's apps pretty much natively.

Also, providing a VM isn't a magic sticking plaster. What would be the reason to buy an N9 over a Galaxy 2S? There's nothing really compelling and the user interface is really something that might be recreated if it comes down to it. My N810 is now sporting a N900 style Maemo5 task display and app launcher. It's pretty well implemented and there's no reason that the Meego UI can't be aped on another platform if it comes to that.

If a device such as the N9 included Alien Dalvik, then it would inherit all of the Android ecosystem AS WELL as being able to run native Meego/Qt apps. This would be a capability beyond that of any Android/iOS/WP7 device on its own.